How can recruiting software make Excel work better for you… or even replace it?

Excel is an undeniably useful tool. It’s user-friendly and widely used. But when it comes to recruiting, well, it’s not ideal. You might use it for compiling candidate information or for reporting on hiring data… but that’s where it ends, really. To get the full effect of what Excel offers, you’d have to use it in tandem with other tools, resulting in a sloppy workflow and a disconnect across platforms. Recruiting software offers a neater, more centralised approach to hiring.

Fumbling around with email and spreadsheets runs the risk of losing valuable candidate information or pulling inaccurate reports. An ATS does all the tough work.

Instead of switching windows or trying to compare data from your email inbox, with what you have in your spreadsheet, why not do it all in one place? HireHive offers means of posting jobs, automatically gathering candidate information, communicating with candidates and pulling reports. Fumbling around with email and spreadsheets runs the risk of losing valuable candidate information or pulling inaccurate reports. An ATS does all the tough work.

Automation

Simply put, using recruiting software instead of Excel for managing candidate applications and details saves time, money and someone from an eye wateringly tedious job. Typing a large number of candidates’ information into excel is not really feasible or sensible.

Excel is useful in particular parts of recruiting, but they are none the less limited. Recruiting software offers a more comprehensive range to tools to a recruiter, including reporting and candidate profiles. Instead of switching from email, to Excel to CVs in various formats, HireHive allows you to do all of these jobs in one place.

Reporting

Recruiting software really takes the donkey work out of the hiring process. While Excel offers a great number of functions, it is far more time consuming than simply exporting automated reports to Excel from HireHive. Using recruiting software for reporting means you don’t need a data analyst to tell you how many candidates are applying through Indeed.

With recruiting software, you can run reports on volumes, sources and views at the press of a button. By simply providing you with the structured data, recruiting software saves you a number of tasks, so you can get down to the job of interviewing and eventually hiring.

Communications

Unless you’re the last recruiter on earth, as though you’re in some sort of bizarre ‘I Am Legend’-type HR dystopia, you hire in a team. Communicating effectively and sharing information with your colleagues is essential, to which Excel does not lend itself well.

Using recruiting software, like HireHive, you are able to share up to the millisecond accurate information with your colleagues. Any comments, communications or changes in status are immediately visible to you and your workmates. Even more important than communicating with colleagues is communicating with candidates. With ATS, this is effortless and centralised, instantly improving candidate experience.

Archiving

Using a cloud-based recruiting solution, like HireHive, takes the worry out of compliance, backing up and archiving. HireHive offers the option to control who has access to particular information, which helps greatly in remaining compliant. Excel has obvious limitations when sharing information or controlling access, so a software solution like ATS provides a convenient alternative.

Backing up and having a centralised resource for candidate information is far more straight-forward, when using a cloud-based system. Excel tables are useful… but not when they’re saved on your colleague’s desktop… who’s just gone on a two week holiday to the Caribbean. Another advantage of recruiting software’s means of managing candidate information is that you’ve got an impressive talent pool to hand, should a similar role come up at your company in the near future.